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Larbert


vitalspark
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Thanks Brian for the kind comments always appreciated.

 

Alloa will still be on the circuit for a bit yet appearing at Glasgow at the 50th anniversary show in February and will be available for invites south of the border for another couple of years at least.

 

The new layout which is being built in an adjacent room and borrows nothing from Alloa is a mainline central Scottish location circa 1959 - 64 which will be accurate and true to prototype and as Alloa built from photographs and much research.

Unlike Alloa it will allow operation of not only traditional 0-6-0s and WDs etc on coal trains and locals but Duchesses and A4s on expresses.

Diesels will also figure in the period and hopefully will lend an interesting and accurate picture of the transition period of the early 60s.

It is aimed at providing a good exhibition experience with plenty of action while remaining totally accurate.

All the locos and stock are already to hand and believe it or not one of the group a Duchess fanatic has all 38 of the things..there is of course just as many of the other big green locos from the east available too..along with many Standards and accurate rakes of stock.

Trackbuilding is under way and of course all hand built..currently bending the arm of a well known member to get on with the 'scissors on a curve' that we need…hope he's reading this!

Will post progress as it happens and hopefully if invitations are forthcoming we will once again have the pleasure of exhibiting Alloa south of the border. 

Dave.

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Teasing us Dave! Central Scotland, with Coronations and A4's that pretty much limits it to south of Perth and either the Caley mainline to Greenhill or the Direct line via Glenfarg. If your emphasising the Duchesses, then more likely the first. Scissors on a curve - Stirling area somewhere?

 

Certainly look forward to it, as Alloa was a class act.

 

All the best

 

John

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Teasing us Dave! Central Scotland, with Coronations and A4's that pretty much limits it to south of Perth and either the Caley mainline to Greenhill or the Direct line via Glenfarg. If your emphasising the Duchesses, then more likely the first. Scissors on a curve - Stirling area somewhere?

 

Certainly look forward to it, as Alloa was a class act.

 

All the best

 

John

 

Close..very close.

Add the centrepiece through station with platform loops and bays..plus a yard at the north end and a couple of signal boxes..

 

Dave

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Thanks Brian for the kind comments always appreciated.

 

Alloa will still be on the circuit for a bit yet appearing at Glasgow at the 50th anniversary show in February and will be available for invites south of the border for another couple of years at least.

 

The new layout which is being built in an adjacent room and borrows nothing from Alloa is a mainline central Scottish location circa 1959 - 64 which will be accurate and true to prototype and as Alloa built from photographs and much research.

Unlike Alloa it will allow operation of not only traditional 0-6-0s and WDs etc on coal trains and locals but Duchesses and A4s on expresses.

 

Diesels will also figure in the period and hopefully will lend an interesting and accurate picture of the transition period of the early 60s.

It is aimed at providing a good exhibition experience with plenty of action while remaining totally accurate.

All the locos and stock are already to hand and believe it or not one of the group a Duchess fanatic has all 38 of the things..there is of course just as many of the other big green locos from the east available too..along with many Standards and accurate rakes of stock.

Trackbuilding is under way and of course all hand built..currently bending the arm of a well known member to get on with the 'scissors on a curve' that we need…hope he's reading this!

Will post progress as it happens and hopefully if invitations are forthcoming we will once again have the pleasure of exhibiting Alloa south of the border. 

Dave.

 

Booking form at the ready!

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What can I say..

 

h6mu6j8b.png.jpeg

Looking at that pic I wouldn't want to go anywhere near with a length of peco set track ol

Something nice about seeing a set of bare baseboards ready for a new start ,and they show how big a project it is

 

Brian

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As the location has now been positively identified, here are a couple of research questions for all you knowledgeable RMWebbers out there.

 

Firstly, does anyone have any specific dates when the scissors crossovers in the middle of the station were removed? The down line one, it seems, was removed before the up line one and there may have been some time between the two, based on photo evidence.

 

Secondly, I have been unable to find, from the usual sources, a signalbox diagram for Larbert SOUTH box - can anyone help?

 

Thanks in anticipation.

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Looking at that pic I wouldn't want to go anywhere near with a length of peco set track ol

Something nice about seeing a set of bare baseboards ready for a new start ,and they show how big a project it is

 

Brian

 

Our small membership is split between16.5 finescasle and EM but with the vast majority of stock at 16.5 including a certain members 38 Duchesses!!..it would make no sense to build the new project in EM so the new layout will also be 16.5 finescale.

As with Alloa it will be hand built and as we constantly are asked if that is EM it can't be bad.

Experience has shown that when everything is built to fine scale standards from buildings to stock then the actual gauge is less obvious.

I wasn't involved with the track on Alloa having joined the group after this point in its construction but the core members who were involved remain so we don't see track construction as an issue.

On Peco track..well its just as easy to use SMP so why wouldn't you and of course as pointwork needs to be built to the actual plan hand built is the only option anyway.

We locked our Duchess fanatic in a darkened room and told him he wasn't getting out until he had mastered the black art of point building ..anyway he has now produced more or less all the points we need from his workbench and apart from looking good they cost a lot less.

We still have the tricky 'scissors on the curve' to construct but we have our seret weapon there in the redoubtable Mr F..just need to swap his track gauges when he's not looking.

As a footnote the Broad Gauge room has behind its locked doors a very fine and tasty layout under construction that hopefully will see the light of day sometime before the end of the decade.

 

Dave.

Edited by vitalspark
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Our new 40ft+ exhibition layout has started ..watch this space.

 

Happy new year to all.

 

Dave.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_5218-1.jpg

 

Our new 40ft+ exhibition layout has started ..watch this space.

 

Happy new year to all.

 

Dave.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_5218-1.jpg

 

In the meantime, you could hold a Cabinet meeting.

 

Loved Alloa, one of the best 4mm layouts ever.

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Our new 40ft+ exhibition layout has started ..watch this space.

 

Happy new year to all.

 

Dave.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_5218-1.jpg

You'll be able to paste a full roll of wallpaper all in one on those pasting tables - very handy if papering the stair-well in a multi storey building. I'm not sure what the corners are for......

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Why do I always get dragged into these things....

 

EM - Extra Mental

 

Dave Franks

 

Hoping there is only one curved scissors to make, now where are my gauges. Hmm, OOBF, OOSF, OO4F, OOFF, EM, EM-2, EMF, EMF-2, S4, P4, ahhh, there it is - 'Peco Universal', everything will run on that,  or so they told us back in the 70s.

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